I spoke with Joe yesterday; he said he was still at that stage. Hoping to have it done by the end of this week. He said he will load a tune and see how I like it and we can change it up from there. I've been borrowing my mother-in-law's dodge truck and damn this thing sucks on gas lol. My motor mount came in today from AWR so I'll get to throw that thing in when i get the car back also.(cabpatch)
Free (or real cheap) custom tune for someone in the San Antonio, TX area...
- Thread starter rodslinger
- Start date
rodslinger
Member
Good to hear. Are you tuning for premium fuel and had a tank of it already ran or just regular? I have to head back to the UK next week. Hoping to have some news from him when I get back that we can start tuning mine.
We haven't spoken about what tune to use so far. I didnt have premium when i dropped it off, just regular. I'm honestly not sure which way i would go with it as the 5 is just a family hauler at this point. More power wouldn't be bad(ever) but better economy also wouldnt be bad.... decisions... decisions.
phunky.buddha
Booga Booga?
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- DFW TX
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- No mo MZ5 want MX5
Anything new?
i had a death in the family over the weekend so i didn't get a chance to bug Joe about the car. It's been a few weeks without it now and im hoping we can get it all wrapped up soon. I hate this gas mileage in the truck; although it may bee a good thing to get me used to the extra fuel costs of a premium tune???? I will be calling him today to see if i can pick it up this weekend maybe. Will keep you all updated.
talked to Joe just a few minutes ago. he is still working on the kernel. i will be picking the car up this weekend as he has everyting he needs to continue to work on the kernel. he said he will let me know when he gets it cracked so i can go back out there and have a tune loaded wohoo!
rodslinger
Member
Thanks for the update and sorry to hear about the family. I was hoping that after two weeks there would have been more progress. I'm starting to lose faith that this can ever get done. I think he is oversold and understaffed as some of the 3 guys are still not finished and are nearing six months into this. I've been trying to get this done since about December of 2012 myself.
Maybe understaffed as in one man operation - I've never gotten anyone other than Joe or voicemail at DT.
It took several weeks (almost a month) for him to get my ECU and all its tables cracked/defined/troubleshot. Now that the actual "tune" is underway, things are moving a bit quicker.
In my experience, it's not unusual for small tuning shops to over-promise on the schedule and then encounter delays, I kind of had that in mind going into this.
I'm definitely taking this timeframe into account for the turbo project. I'll be contacting him, paying, and getting a base map well in advance. Definitely not going to do the hardware fist and then wait on the software - I'd be concerned that the he car would be undriveable while waiting for software if I went that route.
phunky.buddha
Booga Booga?
- :
- DFW TX
- :
- No mo MZ5 want MX5
sac02, I was just planning to use an AEM FIC if I went turbo on the 5... that way I leave the factory tune alone and don't have to worry about an ECU hack- although I prefer to program the stock computer when available. It's the best way other than the nicer standalones.
I'm sad to hear that the ECU is taking so long to hack- just means I'm glad I didn't haul my car down there to live for weeks on end without having access to it!
I'm sad to hear that the ECU is taking so long to hack- just means I'm glad I didn't haul my car down there to live for weeks on end without having access to it!
rodslinger
Member
I hope he comes up with something soon. If this looks like it will drag on another six months then I'm nearing a point where I'm about to abandon this project with DT and take another route.
So you'd rather splice into wire harnesses, instead of flash tuning? Flash tuning certainly seems like the more elegant solution to me. I can flash the stock tune back on at any time. (shrug)
I hear ya on the time thing. It is definitely taking a while, I'm fairly patient, but if I was deprived of my car during this process, it would be unacceptable for sure.
rodslinger
Member
Buy a copy of mazdaEdit PRO for 350 bucks and tune yourself!
If it were that simple I would have done that already. There is an issue for us 06-10 model guys in that MazdaEdit doesn't read or write to the ECU rom file. It will read the live ECU like any other scan tool and datalog but that is it. That is why DT needed a physical car there to tune. They had to map out the differeneces in our 1st gen ECU so the software can properly read and write to it.
Until that is done then our only choice is to hack into the physical harness. Not that hard to do actually. At least it is located in an easy to reach area and the battery box makes a great place to stick the FIC. Almost can't tell anything has been modified unless you are looking for it.
phunky.buddha
Booga Booga?
- :
- DFW TX
- :
- No mo MZ5 want MX5
The original plan was for me to drop my car down in New Braunfels for a week... looks like it wouldn't have been enough time. As far as splicing into the harness, no big deal for me- but all my cars are out of warranty, and I've always rewired my cars for stereo from the battery on back and done ECU splices for other things.
I would LOVE to use a flash solution... but the FIC is still pretty good for an add-on boost application with no internal engine mods. If I was tuning all motor or screwing with the engine guts, then I'd want something different. The wife's car will never get played with internal to the block, so the FIC is a valid solution for me if/when I ever boost the thing.
rodslinger
Member
None. I'm about to ask for a refund. The FIC has been working fine for 30k miles so no reason it won't go another 30k. I'm finding the delays and lack of communication from DT very unpleasant.
phunky.buddha
Booga Booga?
- :
- DFW TX
- :
- No mo MZ5 want MX5
Ugh. Sorry to hear that man. 
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- 2008 Mazda5 GT
NOOOOOO!!! This is the only hope for 2.3 owners . I really want to see what they can do.
. I really want to see what they can do.
